


Undeniable

by Josh89



Category: Castle (TV 2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Castle knows, Don't copy to another site, Don't tell lies, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Happy Ending, Honesty, I Blame Tumblr, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kate remembers everything, Not Canon Compliant, OTP Feels, Past Character Death, Past Violence, Post-Season/Series 03, Post-Season/Series 03 Fix-It, She's honest with him, This is one of the first things I ever wrote
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-13 15:33:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21000014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh89/pseuds/Josh89
Summary: She knows she cares about him too much to lie to him about not remembering anything, to make him hurt the way that she knew he would if he found out he'd been deceived by the woman he loved. He is her best friend, after all. So when Richard Edgar Castle asks how much she remembers about the day that she was shot, she decides to tell him the truth. She replies with 'everything'. AU. A variety of spoilers for Season 3, and a few for Season 2, in place.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Three chapters. 2 main ones and then an epilogue. All finished, and all will be posted over the next three days (counting right now).

She had been shot in the chest at Captain Montgomery’s funeral, by a man intent on killing her to stop her from investigating the conspiracy surrounding her mother’s murder. And Katherine Houghton Beckett remembered every second of it. Castle trying to take the bullet for her, Ryan and Esposito frantically yelling orders to uniformed men as she blacked out on the cold, wet, grass of the cemetery where the service was being held, nearly flat-lining on the operating table as the surgeons worked to save her, the cold inevitability of the dark crimson stain spreading across her chest from the bullet wound she had received. She remembered Castle’s voice, imploring her not to lose consciousness, to stay awake, to stay with him. The words that he said to her just as she finally gave into the blackness and closed her eyes. I love you… And despite everything, despite the fact that he was like a nine-year old on a sugar rush, despite the fact that sometimes she just plain couldn’t stand him, despite every brain cell she had telling her that he would just get bored with her and leave after a few weeks, she knew without a doubt that she had fallen in love with him too. Especially after she saw the way he smiled at her as he entered her hospital room the day after her surgery. She smiled weakly at him. “Castle… Good to see you. You look exhausted”.  
His deep blue eyes met hers, and she had the feeling that he could see into her very soul. Ridiculous, she knew, but she couldn’t deny that she loved the feeling. “I definitely feel exhausted. But the question is; how do you feel?”  
“Remarkably well, considering what happened yesterday. It hurts if I try to move too much, but, given the injuries I received, that’s probably only to be expected.” she responded as cheerfully as she possibly could, which, given how much pain she was currently in, was not too cheerfully at all.  
“While we’re on that subject… The shooter got away. We found the weapon that was used to shoot you, a modified sniper rifle, but the man who shot you managed to escape” Rick said simply.  
She muttered something under her breath. “The cemetery was full of cops. How the hell did he manage to get away without anyone noticing him?”  
He sat down in the one free chair next to her bed. When he next spoke, he sounded about as frustrated by the vanishing act her shooter had pulled as she herself was, though he was clearly doing his best to hide it under his usual calmness. “That’s what I’d like answered too. But it’s not the only reason I’m here. I wanted to talk to you about something related to your shooting, though totally unrelated to the man who shot you”.  
“What is it then? Come on, spit it out…”  
“How much… How much do you remember from when the shot was fired to right now?”  
The abruptness of the question made her pause to think. Did she really want him to know that she remembered everything, but especially that she remembered his confession of love? Did she really want to take the risk that he would break her heart to be with the man she had fallen in love with? Yes… Yes, she knew she did. And she didn’t want to hurt him the way that she knew he would be hurt if he discovered he had been lied to by his best friend. She was broken from her thoughts by his calm, though concerned, voice. “Kate, how much do you remember?”  
She sighed. Now or never… “I remember everything”.  
He seemed to be thrown off guard by her words. “Everything?”  
She sighed. “Yes, Castle, I remember everything. Look, I’m really tired now; can we talk about this some other time?”  
He nodded as he got to his feet. “Of course we can, Kate. I’ll drop in and see you tomorrow”  
As he was about to walk through the door, she called his name, watching as he turned towards her. “Actually, could you not come by tomorrow? I… I just need some time to get my thoughts in order”  
“Of course, Kate. If it helps. How much time do you need?”  
“I’m… I’m not sure yet. I just need to be alone, to get out of the city for a bit, to think. And I need to focus on getting better if I’m going to get back to doing the job I love… and if I’m going to pursue a relationship with the man I’m in love with. I’ll call you when I get back to New York, alright?”  
She found herself wondering if he’d even realize the meaning of her second-to-last sentence even before she’d finished saying it, but it was too late to take it back now. She was relieved when he merely nodded at her. “I understand. I guess… I guess I’ll see you later then”.  
As he walked out the door of her hospital room, and she started to fall asleep, her next words were spoken softly. “I love you too, Rick…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the epilogue left, and that will be posted tomorrow!

-Three months later-  
She had called Castle three days ago, the day after she got back to the city from her father’s cabin, where she had been recovering from everything that had happened over the last year. The shooting, her injury, the death of Captain Montgomery, who had been one of the three corrupt cops ultimately responsible for her mother’s murder, the death of her former mentor, Mike Royce, a case which had taken her and Castle to Los Angeles. The weeks she had spent recovering in the hospital after being shot, Castle’s confession of love to her before she blacked out, her own realization that she was in love with him, the case that had seen the two of them nearly freeze to death in each other’s arms while investigating a dirty bomb threat, and the events that had led to her argument with Josh, her cardiac surgeon ex-boyfriend, which the two of them had broken up during. The new Captain, Victoria ‘Iron’ Gates, was apparently less than happy about having a novelist in her Precinct, and, though Castle was still secretly working with Ryan and Esposito to find out what little information they could actually gain, they were practically no closer to solving it than when they had begun. Castle had apparently spent most of the last few days at book signings for the Nikki Heat book series. In fact… if her memory served her well, which it usually did, he was at one at a store nearby at this very moment. “And what better way to reconcile with him than showing up, unexpected, to one of his book signings?” she asked herself.  
She grabbed her jacket from where it hung over the back of her chair as she walked towards the door. It was a reasonably cold day out there, and she didn’t want to risk catching a cold. Not when she had just recovered from being shot in the chest, anyway.  
-30 minutes later-  
She joined the crowd just inside the Barnes & Noble where Rick was doing his book signing, smiling in anticipation. She couldn’t wait to see his face when he looked up and saw her there. Eventually, she was standing in front of the table he was sitting at. “And who am I making it out to?” he queried.  
She smiled slightly. “Kate. You can make it out to Kate”.  
She could see him freeze as he realized who she was. “Beckett… Are you alright?”  
“I’m actually feeling a lot better. My chest is still a little tight, but it’s definitely better than it was. I guess I just really want to get back to work as soon as I can. Look, do you have a minute? We need to talk”.  
He nodded. “I agree. Look, give me five minutes to finish up here, and then I can take a break, alright?”  
-Five minutes later-  
He had announced that he would be taking a 30 minute break, and the two of them were walking side by side down the road, on the way to a small playground where Kate had often gone with her mother as a child, and where Kate often still went, on the occasions when she found she needed to think in private. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Rick finally broke the silence. “So… The last three months must have been hell for you, what with needing time to recover from being shot and to generally get your thoughts together” he said simply.  
In response, she nodded. “You have no idea how much. Although what makes it so much more hellish was the fact that I had to go through every last second of it alone”  
“Alone? What happened to Josh?”  
She sighed softly. “We broke up three months ago. I really liked him, but… in the end; the relationship just wasn’t what I was looking for. Josh wasn’t who I was looking for. The one I realized I really wanted to be with was the one man who actually risked his life daily just to spend time with me. The man that went to Los Angeles with me to investigate Mike Royce’s murder, who I killed Dick Coonan to save, who beat up Hal Lockwood to save Ryan and Esposito, whose books were an important part in getting me through the grief and despair I felt after my mother’s death. The man who tried to take a bullet for me, who told me that he loved me as I closed my eyes in the cemetery at Captain Montgomery’s funeral, the man who stayed in my apartment in an attempt to keep me safe during the Scott Dunn case, and the man who let me stay in his apartment from the time that mine was blown up until the time that I found a new one. I realized that the man that I really wanted to be with, the man that I was truly in love with, had been there all along. Castle… I realized that I had fallen in love with my best friend. And I was just too stubborn to see it”  
By the time she finished speaking, they had reached the small playground that they had decided was to be their destination. Luckily it was a school day, so the playground was empty, and there was no-one there to interrupt their discussion. She sank down onto one of the swings, as he sat down on the other one. “Were you serious when you said that you loved me?” she queried.  
“Yes, Kate, I was. I meant every word. You see, I, like you, fell in love with my best friend. I’ve been in love with you for a long time now. I’d been keeping it to myself for a while, since I saw how happy you were with Josh, but, when you almost died in front of me that day, I just couldn’t keep it to myself any longer” he replied.  
There was no trace of anything but seriousness in his voice, though it still retained his characteristic gentleness that reminded her of another reason she had fallen in love with him in the first place. Just the way in which he spoke was so amazing to her… “Tell me again, Rick. While I’m awake, this time” she said softly.  
He didn’t even blink. “I love you, Katherine Houghton Beckett”.  
He had never used her full name before… Damn, it sounded good coming from him. She smiled and leaned closer to him, as if it was a secret, only to be kept between the two of them. And in a way, she supposed, it actually was. Moving her lips up against his ear, she whispered the words that she knew to be truer than anything else, the words that signified how she truly felt about him. “Rick… when I said that I had to get better if I wanted to pursue a relationship with the man I was in love with, that man was you. I love you too…”  
She pressed her lips passionately against his, enveloping them in a fiery kiss, and it was then that she knew that she had made the right decision.  
This was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with, which, she could tell, was going to be an absolutely amazing one. And, for the first time in over ten years, the world of Detective Katherine Houghton Beckett felt, well and truly, complete.


	3. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the epilogue.

-One and a half years later-  
“Beckett”.  
The man on the other side of the phone laughed. “God, I love when you answer the phone like that. You sound so professional”.  
Kate smiled softly to herself, burying her head behind her computer screen so that her colleagues couldn’t see her expression. Even though she and Rick (god, she was even referring to him by his first name in her thoughts now. She really was smitten with the writer) had been dating for one and a half years, her team still liked to playfully tease her about their relationship given the opportunity, and it was something she’d much rather prefer to avoid. “Well, I’m a cop, Castle. It’s a hard habit to break”.  
“I can appreciate that”.  
Kate laughed softly. “Good. Anyway, babe, there must be a reason you called, right? What can I do for you?”   
“Must I really have a reason to want to talk to my extraordinary girlfriend?”   
Kate felt herself blush, as she always did when the writer called her extraordinary. It was something that she didn’t think she’d ever get used to, even though it was one of his favourite terms for her. “Rick, as much as I absolutely love talking to you, I have paperwork to finish, and you probably have some writing that needs to be done. What can I do for you?”  
“Do you think Gates would mind if you left early today? I was thinking we could have something to eat at Remy’s and then go for a walk in the park, maybe walk past the playground where we had our first kiss again”  
Kate glanced quickly at the clock on her computer. It was just after 3:30 in the afternoon, and she had been planning to leave at five unless they caught a case, which wasn’t really looking very likely to happen. “I’ll have to ask her, but I don’t think she’d mind since we’re just finishing up paperwork and not actively working a case right now. And that honestly sounds like a lovely idea, babe. How early are you thinking?”.  
“Do you think you could try and leave at about 4:15? That gives Gates a 45-minute warning and give you long enough to finish the rest of your paperwork”  
Kate nodded. “I can do that. Meet you outside the precinct in 45 minutes?”  
“I’ll see you then”.  
There was a soft click as the detective hung up, slipping her phone back into her pocket before standing up and walking towards the short hall that led down to her captain’s office. “Sir? Do you have a moment?” she queried, knocking softly.  
“Come in”.  
The detective opened the door and slipped through, letting it fall softly shut behind her. As she did so, the darker-skinned woman at the desk in the room looked up, nodding at her. “What can I do for you, Detective?”  
“I was just wondering if I’d be able to finish at 4:15 today, sir, since all we’re doing is finishing up the paperwork from our last case”.  
The captain seemed to think it over for a couple of minutes before nodding. “Just make sure that all your paperwork is done in the remaining forty minutes then”.  
“Of course, sir. Thank you”.  
Kate nodded gratefully to her seated boss before turning to leave. As she reached for the door handle, however, her boss spoke again. “And do say hello to Mr Castle for me”.  
“Will do, sir”.  
And with those words, Kate opened the door and slipped through back into the hallway outside the office, wondering exactly how the older woman knew that she was asking to finish early so that she could spend time with her writer boyfriend. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she quickly unlocked it and sent a text to the writer confirming that she’d meet him outside at 4:15, before walking back to her desk and sitting down to continue doing her paperwork.  
-Approximately 1 and half hours later-  
The sound of birds chirping quietly in the trees filled the air as the couple walked through the park, their joined hands swinging between them. Kate sighed happily, smiling over at her brown-haired boyfriend. “I love my job, I won’t deny that, but I hate the fact it doesn’t leave us much free time to spend together. It’s been such a long time since we got to do something like this”  
Her boyfriend smiled back at her. “It certainly has”.  
After walking for a while, they came to the swing set where they had originally confessed their love for each other one and a half years before, which was empty. Rick smiled at her, gesturing towards it. “Shall we?”  
She smiled. “We shall”.  
They sat quietly for a few minutes before Rick spoke again. “Just think, Kate. The last time we were here at this exact spot, you told me you remembered everything, and this relationship started”.  
She nodded. “That was exactly one and a half years ago now. The time’s gone by so quickly since that day”.  
“It certainly has”.  
The writer was fidgety, nervous. She knew that there was something he wasn’t telling her, but she knew him well enough that she wouldn’t press him. He would tell her in his own time. “I didn’t suggest this just for the memories, Kate. There’s something I need to do, something I need to say to you, and I need you to let me finish before you say anything”.  
“I can do that” she said quietly.  
Slipping his hand into his pocket, Rick stepped off the swing he was sitting on, instead kneeling on the grass in front of her. “Kate. Before you came into my life, I was bored. Bored with my life, bored with my fame. Alexis was the only thing that kept me going. You came up to me at that book launch party and you changed my life. You inspire me when I need inspiration, you give me a reason to keep writing, and you challenge me every day to be the best possible version of myself that I can be. Working with you and just getting to be part of your life was enough for me at first, but there was part of me that always knew I wanted more. You are my soulmate, the most important person in my life, and the way that you and Alexis get along means the world to me. I don’t ever want to lose what we have. So, with that said…”  
He paused to take his hand out of his jacket pocket, holding up the small, yet elegant, diamond engagement ring that he’d had in the pocket. “Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?”  
Kate gasped quietly, her hazel eyes sparkling. With no hesitation in her voice, she nodded, smiling from ear to ear as she replied. “Yes. Richard Edgar Castle, my answer is, and will always be, yes. I will marry you”.


End file.
